Jacqueline Moudeina - Human Rights Painting Project

Jacqueline Moudeina was still an infant when she first became acquainted with political peril. A few years before Chad gained independence from France in 1960, the colonial government tried to recruit her father into politics. Jacques Moudeina rejected the overtures, preferring instead to continue his medical practice in the southern town of Koumra. A few weeks after his namesake was born, he was mortally poisoned by a potion containing the saliva of a lion. More than four decades later, Jacqueline Moudeina has received numerous death threats and survived a 2001 assassination attempt that came harrowingly close to succeeding — unintended consequences of her distinction as one of Chad's most prominent human rights lawyers. Moudeina has won international acclaim as her work began to cross borders. She received the 2002 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, given by an international network of human rights organizations including Amnesty International. Over the desperate pleas of her family, she continues to pursue legal cases against Chad's most murderous political figures. Currently in temporary sanctuary at the Penn State Dickinson School of Law as part of the Scholars at Risk Network, Moudeina has not stopped her work. She has been studying advocacy methods and meeting with potential funders for various human rights initiatives, ever mindful of the work that awaits her when she returns to Chad.